Avatars are increasingly used in online social networking, gaming, and other communications, typically as a surrogate for an actual photograph of the user. Avatars offer a measure of privacy, while allowing the user to have control over their online identity. Although users sometimes choose an avatar that is unrelated to their physical appearance, it is often desirable to have the avatar resemble the actual user.
There are several conventional tools for avatar creation and editing. These conventional tools generally allow the user to select from a palette of predefined avatar parts, and in some cases to manually modify the position, shape, or color of these parts. Using these conventional tools to create an avatar that looks like the user can be a time-consuming process that requires some degree of artistic skill.